TBH for most people I would say it's more about the technical challenge than preserving culture. It's a fun side project that is difficult enough without being impossible. Lots of these small bugs require tens of hours of intensive debugging and reverse engineering to root cause.
It's not just that they might all break, but that most people don't currently have access to one. Now everyone can see those games and systems.
Re:Dolphin – The Rise of HLE Audio
by archildress on Wednesday November 12, 2014 @04:37PM
(#8598369)
I'm a longtime emulator fanatic, but have seriously never considered this idea that emulation ensures future generations can experience a part of culture.
So insightful. Thanks for sharing.
I recommend you to read up on byuu's work. He's the author of bSNES, an accuracy-oriented emulator for the SNES.
This article is a bit old, but it's a good start: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/08/accuracy-takes-power-o...
At some point in the future the actual machines that run these games, along with the data stores for these games, will all be broken or otherwise incapable of functioning. However as long as there is machinery that can run these emulators, or emulate an OS that can run these, they will be preserved.